The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has reported that Nigeria’s crude oil production increased to 1.38 million barrels per day (mbp/d) in March this year, reflecting a slight increase over the 1.31 million bpd produced in February.
The global oil cartel gave these figures in its latest Monthly Oil Market report released on Monday disclosed that the data on the March production, which represents a 5.25 per cent month-on-month increase, were based on direct communication with Nigerian authorities.
It, however, reported that data from secondary sources placed Nigeria’s output higher at 1.46 million bpd in March, up from 1.44 million bpd in February.
Despite the improved crude oil production in the month under review, the OPEC noted that Nigeria fell short of its allocated 1.5 million bpd quota by approximately 117,000 bpd.
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The oil cartel normally relies on two data sources, namely primary and secondary, to track crude oil production on monthly basis among its member-countries.
A further analysis of the monthly oil market report showed that Nigeria maintained its position as Africa’s biggest oil producer in Africa, slightly ahead of Libya, which recorded production of 1.30 million bpd in the month
Also, the OPEC reported that total crude output from its member-countries averaged 35.06 million bpd in March, representing a month-on-month decline of 7.70 million bpd.
Over the past months, Nigeria’s crude oil production volumes had been fluctuating due to operational and structural challenges in the nation’s hydrocarbon resources industry.
To tackle the challenges, the Federal Government has been committed to fiscal and other policy measures to attract new investments into the industry.
